Black History Month survey offends some PepsiCo employees

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A survey meant to celebrate Black History Month at the PepsiCo plant on Post Road has offended some employees.

The survey was presented on a flyer that read “Take the Black History Month Survey Monkey Trivia.”

It was directing employees to follow the link to Survey Monkey, a popular online survey tool.

Tim Buckley who has worked for PepsiCo for more than 20 years said at a plant made up of mostly minority employees, better words could have been used.

“I would have just put Black History Month trivia and left it at that. They could have left the ‘Monkey’ part out. It’s like you have to be careful with what you, even with me — even the words I say around my peers and employees, you know — I have to be careful how I use my words,” Buckley said.

Buckley was not the only person who reached out to News 8 about the incident; he was just the only one available for an interview.

He said the plant manager eventually called a meeting to say “sorry for the misunderstanding” and removed the flyer.

Buckley said his friends who work at the north side plant told him the survey was never posted at that location.

Statement

“This unfortunate but honest mistake occurred as part of a Black History Month program in our Indiana facilities. We are deeply sorry for the mistake. We have removed all instances of the survey website name from materials and apologized to our employees. We take employee feedback very seriously and are committed to the pursuit of racial and social justice in our workplace and communities around the world.”

PepsiCo spokesman